Santorum: GOP must reach Latinos

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum charged Thursday that President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party held off on immigration reform so they could capitalize politically during the election.

“It did not get done, in my opinion, by this president because he wanted this as an issue,” Santorum said on Fox News’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” “I don’t believe the Democrats are at all sincere about doing anything and compromising with Republicans on immigration.”

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Santorum’s comments come as Republicans grapple with the question of how to reach out to the Hispanic community, an exploding demographic that went decisively for Obama on Election Day.

“They would rather have the issue and continue to drive … this wedge between races and creeds and classes or whatever else they want to divide America,” Santorum said of the Democratic approach to the immigration issue. “That’s unfortunate. Let’s see if Barack Obama, in a second term, is serious about solving problems or wants to perpetuate politics.”

But Santorum also said immigration reform must be accomplished.

“Immigration reform is something we have to deal with,” he said. “This president got away with it. He got away with four years of doing nothing.”

“Yeah, I think we did lose a lot of [the] Hispanic vote,” he said. “I think one of the reasons [is], we didn’t talk about all the issues that that community, which, as all immigrant communities are, there are a disproportionate [number who are] middle and lower income who are trying to struggle to rise. We didn’t have a strong message for those folks. And I’m not just talking Hispanics, I’m talking writ large."